Review Page
The following is an article which appeared in the North East Times magazine
NORTH EAST TIMES - NOVEMBER 1997
" WE'VE NEVER LEFT ONE UP THERE YET! "
"There’s nowt so queer
as folk” as we used to say in those far-off pre-enlightened days, and no-one
would agree more readily than the genial Airport Manager of British Airways
at Newcastle International Airport, Jim Shields. As Jim is fond of saying
"aeroplanes are exciting but people are funny”. And he should know
having been a fixture at the Airport since the halcyon days of BKS Air Transport,
when Newcastle Airport was a collection of wooden huts and the passengers a
small intrepid band of adventurers. Jim describes his occupation as being in
“the people business” and spends as much of his time as possible mixing with
passengers, providing advice, directions, or reassurance based on a lifetime
of aviation experience. The BA Executive Lounge enables him to meet the airlines
frequent flyers on a regular basis, and to make many friends in the region’s
business community. It is also a fertile area for gathering material for his
After Dinner Speaker’s role. Jim is in great demand as a Speaker, regaling audiences,
mainly business, with examples of how that mysterious alchemy at airports causes
us to act strangely whenever we become “passengers". Like the lady, who
on being allocated a Window seat, asked if the window opened - to which Jim
replied that the airline tended to discourage window-opening at 30,000 ft, as
they generally tried to land with the same number of people they set off with.
He does recognise that from time to time aircraft land with one more passenger
than they left with, and on these happy occasions crew often ask fellow passengers
to toast the happy mother and child - there is however no such formal recognition
for conception in flight - other than membership of the Mile High Club.
There’s more, much more, but you have to witness Jim’s deadpan delivery to fully
appreciate the wacky world he describes. His fame as a raconteur is spreading,
and his engagements range from local company dinners to the 150th Anniversary
of the Stock Exchange, with venues from small hotels to the Langholm Hilton
in London’s West End. As with most performers, Jim is often quoted other examples
of aviation lunacy by members of the public in the bar afterwards, bearing out
his belief that real-life events are more entertaining then he could ever have
invented.